“Make it all up — but make it up so truly that later it will happen that way.”

Expressing his belief that invented fiction can achieve a truth beyond literal fact · Letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald, 28 May 1934

• Imagination
• Truth
• Writing

“It's none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way.”

Wryly contrasting the mythology of natural talent with the reality of learning a craft · Conversation with Arnold Samuelson, recalled in With Hemingway

• Humour
• Learning
• Writing

“It's awfully hard to talk or write about your own stuff because if it is any good you yourself know about how good it is.”

Explaining the awkwardness writers face when judging or discussing their own work · Letter to Malcolm Cowley, 17 October 1945

• Criticism
• Humility
• Writing